ARTICLES ABOUT CITY POLICE BY DATE - PAGE 3

Three years ago, I joined six of my friends in passing out vegetarian recipes and information at the Inner Harbor. Baltimore City Police officers ordered us to stop and demanded that we leave the property, under threat of arrest. So last week, we sued those officers for violating our constitutional rights. We had a First Amendment right to pass out literature at the Inner Harbor, and we had proof of our right to be there - the property management company's specific guidelines - which the officers refused to acknowledge.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said Wednesday that he'll eliminate 212 officer positions - all vacant - from the department, marking the first significant reduction in the ranks in decades. Shrinking the size of the police force will be offset by new staffing strategies that will put more officers on the streets overnight when crime spikes, Batts told City Council members during a nearly two-hour budget hearing. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake backs the approach.

Baltimore police say they plan to crack down on the city's notorious dirt bike riders, pledging to infiltrate the groups using social media and undercover officers in an effort to disrupt the packs of riders. Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said the popularity of the documentary "12 O'clock Boys" - a reference to the high-flying wheelie pose that riders strive to achieve - has "glorified" dirt bike riding and drawn enthusiasts from other states. It is illegal to operate the motorized bikes anywhere in Baltimore.

This afternoon, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, her administration will release the results of "sophisticated ground penetrating radar" tests conducted in the days after the landslide on East 26th Street. The information is critical in determining how soon displaced residents can return to their homes, she said. "We are in process of gathering information so that can inform the public about all of the actions that my administration took before the collapse as well as provide a thorough assessment of the structural integrity of the area both currently and leading up to the collapse," Rawlings-Blake said.

The written questions from the audience of more than 100 people came fast and furious on cards read aloud by City Councilman Bill Henry, moderator of the 3rd annual Public Safety Summit at Morgan State University on Saturday. What can city police do about underage drinking, motorists not stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks, and juveniles who are arrested for breaking into homes and then end up back out on the street, doing it again? Why is Roland Park less crime-prone than Cherry Hill?

A man was fatally stabbed, a woman was strangled and three people were shot early Sunday morning in separate incidents in Baltimore, police said. City police were dispatched about 2:15 a.m. to the 1900 block of North Monroe Street, in the Mondawmin neighborhood, where they found a man stabbed in the chest. The victim, identified as Dennis Leon Settle, 39, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he was involved in argument before he was stabbed. The location was initially listed as the 1900 block of McKean Avenue.

A man was shot in the arm Friday afternoon in East Baltimore, city police said. About 5:30 p.m. Friday, a shooting was reported in the 2700 block of E. Oliver St. in the city's Berea section, police said. Officers later found a man with a gunshot wound to his left arm. The man was treated and released at a local hospital, police said. Police did not release further details about the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 410-396-2433. timswift@baltsun.com

After reading your article about city police Sgt. Keith Mcneill's shooting, two things went through my mind ( "Police scour Baltimore for suspect in shooting of fellow officer," March 16). First, a prayer that Sergeant Mcneill makes a full and speedy recovery. I add him to the list of cops in my own family and pray for their safe return home every day after shift. The other thought was that I hope the next time I read about another senseless shooting involving a private, non-police citizen of Baltimore, I see in The Sun the exact same words about the intensity of the search from Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts: "We've been moving on this for the past 24 straight hours," Mr. Batts said.

Police say a man shot his wife in Randallstown on Friday morning before turning the gun on himself in Northwest Baltimore. Baltimore County police said the Randallstown shooting occurred just before 7 a.m. in the 9600 block of Axehead Court. Police said that the man, who was married to the woman but had been staying somewhere else for the past several weeks, shot her at least once in the upper body during an "interaction" in front of the home. The suspect fled the scene, and officers later found his vehicle in Baltimore City.

The Baltimore Police Department has instituted a new policy that prohibits officers from stopping people from taping or photographing police actions, the agency said Wednesday. The new rules were unveiled as the city agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who says police seized his cellphone and deleted the video of an arrest at the Preakness Stakes in 2010. "Four years ago, if we had taken the complaint seriously and addressed it in a very rapid manner, we may not be sitting here today," Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said Wednesday.